Does Altitude Affect Home Heating?

Denver area residents are used to making little adjustments in their lives to fit the altitude. We have to tweak recipes in the kitchen, tinker with vehicle tire pressure out in the garage, and more. Did you know that some of your HVAC equipment also needs an adjustment to reach peak performance at high elevation?

It is suggested that homes at 2,500 feet elevation and above need to have furnaces that are capable of handling higher altitude. The problem is that thinner air is not as good at carrying heat. To maintain high efficiency in this type of environment you cannot just use the exact same furnace someone is using at sea level.

How big is the effect? Let’s use an example of a heating unit that puts out 35,000 BTUs at sea level. It is estimated that placing the same unit at an elevation of 5,000 feet should lead to roughly 20 percent loss in capacity. It works out to about four percent loss in capacity for every 1,000 feet above sea level. That’s a pretty big effect.

Thanks to our experience and expertise, this isn’t something you really have to worry about. At Grand Home Services, our professional installers have conversion kits that will allow new liquid propane gas and natural gas furnaces to operate just as efficiently as units positioned at sea level.

No matter what type of heating setup you want for your Denver area home, The Grand Home Services team will help you choose the equipment that fits your needs — and your elevation — perfectly. If you have any questions about heating at high altitude, or if you want to learn more about the furnaces we have in stock that will work perfectly here for your Denver heating needs, call us at 720-365-1187.